Partnerships, alliances and two days in Wales

I firmly believe that in today’s complex business environment, success will be built on partnerships and alliances. According to PWC’s Annual Global CEO Survey, over 75% of CEOs rated partnerships as ‘important’ or ‘critical’ to their business in Telecoms, Media and Technology sector.[1]

We know that as the needs and requirements of our customers continue to evolve, we can’t do “everything” ourselves. Partnering with other organisations helps us to expand the range of products and services we can give our customers, grow in new markets and differentiate from the competition.

So this week, on a wet and windy Monday morning, I brought around 250 of our Sales team together for a two-day event in Newport. It wasn’t necessarily a popular move. Mondays can be hard work even without an extra-early start and a long journey, but I wouldn’t have done it if I didn’t think it was important.

The event was supported by some of the vendors we have forged partnerships and alliances with including Mitel, Cisco, Hewlett Packard Enterprise and Box. Over the two days they delivered and supported a variety of training workshops and presentations. One of the aims was for everyone to understand them better – who they are, how they operate and what tools they have put in place to support us.

Like any relationship, a successful partnership is built on trust and transparency. There must also be shared responsibilities, mutual benefits and aligned ambitions. Once this framework is in place, it’s far easier to explore the value we can create for our customers. We want to develop new, exciting and valuable propositions – and so do our partners. We do this to help the organisations we work with prepare for the future, while providing great digital experiences for their employees and customers.

The feedback from the event has been extremely positive and for me, it’s really important that we continue to grow and evolve our partnerships and alliances community. We’re not doing this to keep up with our competitors, we’re doing this to lead the way in the industry.

Ultimately, we know that success for our customers is a success for us, and success for us is a success for our partners.